RefBlog

When do you fight the fight?

I received an email from the editor of The Global Game the other day asking my opinion regarding the exclusion of Asmahan Mansour, an eleven-year-old, from a soccer game in Quebec. The exclusion was because she wouldn't remove her hijab (commonly referred to as a headscarf) - as you can imagine, this has caused quite a furor in the Great White North. Rather than go through all the details, here are a number of articles on the subject: (more)

28 February '07 - 21:16 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

Equipment Rotation Blues

I just finished a test run at the pace I'll need to qualify for a State badge - I'm about 2-3 minutes off the pace I'll need, but there's been a definite improvement over the last couple of years. I've changed my diet quite a bit (I still eat in my car - but there's no way around that, when you work out of it), and have even lost some weight. Hopefully I can pick up those last few minutes in the next two months.

I will say this, having a personal trainer helped quite a bit - it's given me some accountability that I hadn't had before, as well as someone to tell me how to do it the right way for me. I'm still feeling that if I make it, it'll be by the skin of my teeth, but hopefully, if I can keep up with the program, it'll get easier as things go on. Fingers are, however, permanently crossed.

Even though it's the dead of winter, things are starting to happen - referee meetings are starting to be scheduled, and I started going through my things (albeit wistfully) looking at what needs to be fixed or replaced for the upcoming season. So far I've had to order replacement jerseys, as my XL sizes are just too big (yea!). There has been the ordeal of my shoes: after a false start, finding out that Puma effectively shrank their sizes (what's a size 9 a year ago is a size 10 now), which burned me on mail-order, I started going to running stores to look for something else that will work when I'm in the middle on a good day. The end result was a pair of Asics running shoes that are all black, including the logo; definitely not soccer shoes, but it looks like they'll give me good stability, and they broke in nicely at the gym.

I think watch companies have their watches break down on purpose - especially the little plastic bits that keep the watch bands from flying out on you. I say this, because went to the Timex website to look into replacing said bit on a watch I bought last year, and went all goggly-eyed when I saw their new OVA line - OVA meaning Optimal Viewing Angle. It rests on the side of your wrist rather than the top. Since the band on the watch I had been using for the last couple of years is breaking down, I figure I'll give it a try. The problem with the old watch is that the velcro is dying - in my humble opinion it works much better than plastic bands, but you can't wash the smell out; I don't care that much on the field, but according to my wife is smells worse than my shirt does after 90 minutes in 90-degree heat. In any event, it's becoming next to impossible to find sports watches with cloth bands anymore, so I'm just going to have to deal with it.

(more)

25 February '07 - 11:12 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

I feel like I'm grousing

I received another high school league newsletter, the bastion of "coaches are the greatest thing since sliced bread", usually followed by an article about why its the referee's responsibility for sportsmanship. Nothing so blatantly puke inducing this time - there was only one article for referees in this one, and it was more a good-bye to a guy who's reffed high school for 30 years. Maybe it's because I'm a cynical bastard, or maybe because the tone this rag has set with me has put me into a habit of being so cynical, but there were a few things I just didn't like.

There was a lot of rah-rah high school - no mention of the work he did in the USSF, although there was a brief sentence or two about college; I thought it was rather amusing that he, like many of us, left high school entirely to do college once he was able, and only returned when he became too old to center college games anymore. There was another that bugged me about him not knowing when the last time he threw a coach out; that statement bugs me because it puts a finger of blame on a referee that does toss a coach - it's been a long time since I tossed a coach in a game, too - but that doesn't mean there weren't plenty that tried to push the line as far as they could get. "I haven't ejected a coach in years because they know me, they know my limits, and they know I'm fair" would be nice - maybe he said something like that, I'm paranoid enough about the editors to think it's possible they edited it down.

But there was one sentence that always nags at me when I hear it about refereeing, that you did your best job when you're not noticed on the field. As I went to the gym, I realized why that bugs me, if you can go 90 minutes (or in high school, 80) without being noticed, it's not you that did your job, it's the players that did a good job. Or more correctly, it's the players who played like they were supposed to. Yes, on those games, sometimes we have to have a quiet word with a player, and we're able to keep a low profile - but that statement always bugs the shit out of me, because sometimes we have to play bad cop, hell, sometimes we have to play Judge Dredd (at the USSF recert I was just at, the instructor kept referring, jokingly, to the players as 22 potential criminals). Referees do good jobs when they do enough to keep the game safe and fair; playing it quiet is never a good thing when that means missing the correct, yet courageous call, and damn any publication that sends itself to referees, trying to tell us anything else. (more)

21 February '07 - 09:46 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

The Proposed Law Changes for 2007/2008

IFAB's general meeting is a chance for us to speculate on what might be in store for us shortly. For most of the world, that means in July, for me, that usually means 2008, as leagues are in full swing well before the official installation date. If you want to read the full document, click here for the pdf, but if you want a quick-and-dirty summary, with some comments, please read on. Keep in mind these are proposals, not actual law changes.

Law 1 - The Field of Play (From Scotland): Change the Decision of IFAB to: "There should be no advertising of any kind on the ground within the technical area or within one metre from the touchline. Further, no advertising shall be allowed in the area between the goal line and the goal nets."

Will it pass? I don't see why not. I'm not really detecting any real change in policy - just in less verbage.

Law 4 - The Player's Equipment (From Scotland): Change the basic equipment from "a jersey or shirt" to "a jersey or shirt – if thermal undergarments are worn, the colour of the sleeve should be the same main colour as
the sleeve of the jersey or shirt."

Will it pass? This is one of those changes in the Laws that are meant for professionals, and not us down in the playfields. I think it's likely to pass, but I don't care for it; it add a layer of beuracy that shouldn't be necessary in the Laws. Do referees need to come down on this because one team doesn't have the money to get eveyrthing exactly the same? Sheesh. Chances are if it passes, the USSF will have us perform the same proceedure as we do with a team wearing jerseys without sleeves: mark on report, ignore. Then when the governing body sees the report, they too will ignore. I would rather them enforce this at the higher levels without clogging up the Laws.

Law 4 - The Players Equipment (From FIFA): This would add "The basic compulsory equipment must not contain any political, religious or personal statements".

Will it pass? Likely. This is an addendum to the removal of shirts thing added a few years ago. Players would take off the jerseys to reveal, among other things, pictures of their kids, political slogans, religious statements, whatever. My guess is that players are getting more creative in saying my XYZ is better than everyone else's.

Law ? - The Fifth Official (From FIFA): No law number cited here, but it covers a fifth official. This is the text:

• The fifth official may be appointed under the competition rules and officiates only if either
of the two assistant referees is unable to continue.
• The fifth offi cial will be situated within the technical area in close proximity to the fourth official.
• The fifth official would have no other duties.

Will it pass? My question is, does it matter? FIFA's already done this in the last Women's World Cup. The center referee was replaced before the start of Extra Time, because of dehydration; but not with the fourth or one of the ARs - a whole different center.

Additional Instructions for Referees, Assistant Referees and Fourth Officials (From FIFA): this would add a manditory caution if "he covers his face with a mask or other similar item to celebrate a goal."

Will it pass? The reasoning behind this is particularly interesting: "This proposed amendment was motivated by the potentially increasingly common practice of players wearing masks during matches, which could tarnish the image of the game." I've never even heard of that myself. I can see the logic, but I wish we didn't have to include every example in the Laws (OK, it's not the Laws, but it's still a must-read document from FIFA with just about the same weight).

Items that will be discussed are:

• Protocol for dealing with injured players (from Scotland)
• Adidas/Cairos goal-line ball technology update
  
• Italy's goal-line technology update
• England's goal-line technology
• Pitch-side monitors (from FIFA)
• Video Evidence (from FIFA)
• Flying Elbows (from FIFA)
• Color of Artificial Pitches (from FIFA) [mmmmmm tie-died soccer fields]

(more)

16 February '07 - 14:37 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

Best of 2006: Some pondering on red cards

I wrote this article in responce to a particlar game I had, but as I re-read it, I realize that it deals more in generalities of why and how referees issue send-offs, the ugly side that we see as referees, and an all too common misconception held by too many referees.

That being the case, there's not a whole lot for me to summarize before I repost the article. If I was to add one thing, is that's a good referee is one that gets the job done with the least amont of interfierence needed; and that too little visability can be just as bad as too much.

Some pondering on red cards

As I do after some intense games, I try to do some thinking on my performance, my attitude, and my ability. Periodically I'll also see a post on the SocRef listserv about some really good referee (gets ref of the year multiple times, the golden whistle, etc., etc.), and that he's never given a red card in his life. Invariably I'll wonder two things:

First, what's this guy doing that gets him through his games so cleanly, without incident? And conversely, what am I doing wrong?

Second, what planet is that guy from?

I don't think any referee likes giving out red cards (at least not one that sticks around for the long haul). A red card pretty much is an admission that the game has gone beyond the bounds of civility. Speaking for myself, I like challenging games, I like games where I'm able to keep things in control enough to avoid giving out a red card. But at least in today's sporting world, you see coaches teaching 12-year-olds to pull shirts, parents acting like reprehensible role models (my single U-10 game last year?), and people generally acting childish. Unless you do real rec games all your career (real rec, not where rec just means a lower-skill level than the lowest affiliated league), I think some red card situations are inevitable - what's worse, if the referee still refuses to pull out the red, something even worse can happen:

In my second year of reffing, before I started this blog, I was runing a line for a high school playoff game; the center has previously swapped positions with other referees almost every time he was assigned as a center during the season because he was uncomfortable doing middles at that level. That's a good decision, but apparently nobody ever told the assignor, and he decided to take this particular center, because for some reason he thought they really really wanted him for that game. Less than a minute to half-time there was a foul and the defender was standing right on top of the ball - keep in mind this is NFHS, which means that it's the scoreboard, not the referee, that is the timekeeper, which means that the referee either needs to get this player out out of the way pronto, or stop the clock. He did neither, there was some pushing, shoving, and the clock ran out. I told him at half time that he should have stopped the clock and cautioned the defender (he didn't), that it was a cynical tactic, and it really pissed off the other team in the process. He said he didn't like issuing cards - and cards. Let's just say things went down-hill from there, complete with large-scale brawl and a terminated game. All that without a single card being issued.

As a referee, I've made a stand that I won't take on-field abuse from players or coaches. I've seen too many little kids get abused by people thirty-years older than them, and I won't stand for it; I can't stop other refs from allowing it, but I won't, because shit travels downhill, and just because I'm dealing with adults doesn't mean they won't teach it to their kids. According to the Laws, I can't do anything about the fans, but as far as players and coaches go, this is still a game for civilized people, and if you abuse the referee, you're gone. No questions, no regrets. I can and do think about what I could do that brings things to that point, however.

For example, what could I have done in the last game to slow things down and calm people down? On the surface, it didn't look like I could. They both wanted to go all out, but only one team (two players, specifically) was able to going at the same pace as them. On second look, yes there were a few things I could have handled differently; I was caught up in the speed myself, but is that really wrong? As a referee I have to keep up with the pace of the game, and the higher the pace, the more bodies will fly. I definitely called fouls in both directions, carded in both, but only one team whined. When I tried to calm them, they were unwilling to listen. At some point, you have the let the players do their thing, and if they cross the line, then I have to deal with it appropriately. My calls may have frustrated them, and while they did get explanations they chose not to listen, because most of those calls were repeated. I may have influence on the game, but I cannot mind-control them, I can only show them the path to finishing the game, be it by whistle, by voice, or by the yellow card, but only they can choose where to go and what to pay attention to. (more)

10 February '07 - 22:48 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

I wish the clinic had been a week later

Refereeing, sadly, like many other things, is saddled with politics. You hear it everyone from who gets a State badge, or who gets a shot at National, and what is safe to say where. It's no different than anywhere else - it's a sad fact of life. I know there was and is a lot of grousing about the previous state referee committee, and the current one (I pay attention to these things, and don't know how they get selected to their positions), but one thing you can't say is that the current one is disorganized. Not that the last one was disorganized, but the current committee has done a great job with distributing information and making it easier to do the registration paperwork: all the clinics are online, as is the registration; take that and a copy of your USSF registration, and you've eliminated standing in line to process your paperwork.

My heart wasn't in this clinic as much as I would have liked. In the previous week, I learned that my grandmother died, then my dad passed out and was diagnosed with a heart condition, then my grandfather fell on the day of the funeral and broke his hand, and finally I got a concussion in my first day back to work. I pissed off somebody. Add 22+ hours of driving in three days, and the time to recover from the concussion, and I hadn't had a real weekend in three weeks - I really would have liked to have the clinic a week later.

The two biggest things weren't really the clinic itself, but the fact that the youth league is now requiring background checks for their referees, and a special test for rectification. I have mixed feelings about the former - yes I know we want to protect the kids, but I'm also feeling that my own privacy is being whittled away rather quickly. Just because you have nothing to hide doesn't mean they won't punish you for it. At the funeral, which was in my parent's church in Missouri, my dad showed me this special play-area for the kids that he helped design and build; in addition to the plastic landscaping, light shows, and whatever else they had locked away, they had a very tight security measure. Every kid who goes to this play area has to check in, get an ID badge complete with his or her picture; the parents get a receipt, and can only pick up the kids with the receipt - when they sign up they must report who can and cannot pick up the kid, and nobody is allowed inside the play-area except kids and staff - period. It just seems rather odd, an artificial play-area with prison-like controls and systems - I have a client that deal with rare coins worth thousands each, and have a section of people who literally work in a vault for the most expensive of them, and their security isn't as tight.

The test was designed to be a wake-up call. It was designed to cover not the basics of the Laws, but the peripheral documents: the A.T.R., the FIFA Questions & Answers, the Guide to Procedures. Their expectation, at least as announced was that most of us would fail (and this was an advanced clinic - full of people who take their reffing seriously), and that was confirmed as the scores started coming out. I don't know what I got (I'm waiting for the email), but apparently the average was 70. I would imagine I'm right around there, myself. They said there was no failing grade, so I imagine they got special dispensation from the USSF to do this - people upgrading had to take the standard USSF test. I like to read the Laws and the ATR before my clinics - not to study for the test, but because when the clinic is in the winter, it's nice to refresh yourself on everything, but circumstances really prohibited that - although I don't go over the Q&A and the Guide to Procedures that often, which was the point of the whole exercise.

One thing missing from the clinic, which has absolutely nothing to do with it in and of itself, is that normally I can try to put some of what I learned into practice, even if in a limited way, in the small-sided indoor matches I referee - it's nice because I can try to use those games to experiment, and try to drill into my head what I want to keep for when summer comes around. This year, I'll just have to hope memory, and some additional reading, will help.

06 February '07 - 23:27 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶